Montpellier Conference- 9th / 10th November 2006

Venue;
Le Centre Régional de Documentation Pédagogique (CRDP)
CRDP de Montpellier
CS29003 – Allée de la Citadelle
34064 Montpellier Cedex 2

Informatics as a subject discipline in universities has seen considerable turbulence within the last ten years and indeed it is unlikely that any other subject discipline has been subjected to such extremes in demand over such a short period.

Many would argue that it is still an emerging discipline, which has not reached a ‘steady state'. The reasons for the fluctuations are thought to be related to a number of issues, particularly related to the year 2000 issue , the development of the Internet and the concurrent rapid expansion of the information technology industry.

Although this created a significant demand for Informatics courses across Europe the situation started to changed around 2001 and there has been a steady decline in applications to universities since then.

Many reasons have been postulated for this, including the image of the discipline, job prospects and the experience of the subject at high or secondary school level.

Informatics can therefore be viewed as a discipline at a crossroads juncture with inherent problems. In the USA , professional bodies such as IEEE-CS and ACM have been proactive in identifying these global problems and providing guidance in the form of curriculum recommendations;  no such common body exists within Europe.

This conference is therefore an initial gathering of Informatics Educators across Europe with the aim of providing a focus for interested parties to share experience and identify common issues to be addressed within Europe.

We believe the conference will be of interest to all involved in Informatics education in Europe, from the lecturer teaching daily and whose interest may be in the pedagogy to the Heads of Department and Deans who shape policy and curriculum within their university. Sessions 1 and 4 may be of more interest to the former, sessions 2 and 3 of more interest to the latter, but we anticipate interesting presentations and debate in areas of concern to all.